Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelJohn 1:6-8, 19-28 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’, as the prophet Isaiah said.”
(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.)They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know,even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
In the Philippines the Misas de Gallo, also known as Simbang Gabi or Aguinaldo Masses, the novena of pre-dawn Masses leading up to Christmas, will begin on Saturday, the 16th. These are votive Masses in honour of our Blessed Mother and in thanksgiving for the gift of our faith. The Spanish word 'Aguinaldo' means 'gift' and in this context refers to the gift of faith. For 15 years, 2002 until 2016, I celebrated these in the chapel of St Joseph, Espinos Village, Bacolod City. As I am now based in Ireland, I don't have to get up at 3:30 am in order to start Mass at 4:30 am.
The Church over the centuries has reflected on gifts we have received from God that we could not have received had our First Parents never sinned. A song included among poems for Advent and Christmas in the Breviary published by the hierarchies of Australia, England & Wales, and Ireland is one of those reflections, Adam lay y-bounden. In the Breviary it is given the title O Felix Culpa, 'O Happy Fault'. This particular song marvels at the fact that but for the reality of the sin of Adam we would never have had Our Lady as Queen of Heaven.
The poem reflects part of the Exultet, the Easter Proclamation: O certe necessarium Adae peccatum, /quod Christo morte deletum est! O truly necessary sin of Adam,/destroyed completely by the Death of Christ. O felix culpa,/quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptionem! O happy fault/that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer.
At Easter we proclaim the great reality that God has given us a Redeemer and that he is now risen from the dead.
Coming up to Christmas we reflect on the birth of our Redeemer through the consent of Mary, his and our Mother. Mary is part of God's eternal plan and if we sideline her we distort that reality, as we also do if we put her in the centre and sideline her Son. In the painting above Mary, while being honoured as Queen of Heaven by the angels and saints is adoring God with her whole being, inviting us to do the same. The song too invites us to sing Deo gratias! Thanks be to God!
That is what the Church invites us to do every time we celebrate Mass, the Eucharist, the Thanksgiving. It invites Filipinos in particular at this time of the Aguinaldo Masses to thank God for the great gift of faith and to share it with others. One way in which Filipinos have been doing that is by introducing this centuries-old practice to other countries, adapting it to local circumstances.
Sung by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, England
Adam lay ybounden,
Bounden in a bond;
Four thousand winter,
Thought he not too long.
And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took.
As clerkes finden written
In theiré book.
Ne had the apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Ne hadde never our Lady,
A been heaven’s queen.
Blessed be the time
That apple taken was,
Therefore we may singen.
Deo gratias!
This song from England dates from the 15th century. The text here is an adaptation of the original Middle English and the musical setting is by Boris Ord.
Scottish poet Edwin Muir's One Foot in Eden, included in the Breviary for Lent and Easter, also reflects on the theme of felix culpa.
One Foot in Eden
by Edwin Muir
Video and reading by Philip Marshall
What had Eden ever to say Of hope and faith and pity and love Until was buried all its day And memory found its treasure trove? Strange blessings never in Paradise
Fall from these beclouded skies.
Traditional Latin Mass
Third Sunday of Advent
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 12-17-2023, if necessary).
Lyrics in the original Latin with English translation here.
Today is Gaudete Sunday, the name coming from the opening words of the Introit/Entrance Antiphon: Gaudete in Domino semper - Rejoice in the Lord always, taken in turn from the opening words of the Epistle today, Rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4).
The notes on Web Gallery of Art state: Resurrection of Christ was commissioned for the Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore (Church of the Most Holy Redeemer) - built in thanksgiving for deliverance from the plague that decimated Venice from 1575 to 1576, in which some 46,000 people died.
Readings(Jerusalem
Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand,
Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
GospelJohn 20:1-9 (New Revised Standard Version,
Anglicised Catholic Edition)
Early
on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to
the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have
taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’Then Peter and the other disciple
set out and went towards the tomb.The two were running together, but the other disciple
outran Peter and reached the tomb first.He bent down to look in and saw the
linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.Then Simon Peter came, following
him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,and the cloth that had been on
Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by
itself.Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also
went in, and he saw and believed;for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he
must rise from the dead.
At the great feasts of the Church, Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, I find myself tongue-tied. I look to others to express something of the meaning of these celebrations. Here is the Regina Coeli talk that Pope Benedict XVI gave on Easter Monday 2007. I have highlighted parts of his address in which the Pope calls each of us to proclaim the Gospel in our daily lives. He also reminds us, as he did so often, that our Christian faith is not born from the acceptance of a doctrine but from an encounter with a Person, with Christ, dead and Risen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are still filled with the spiritual joy that
the solemn celebrations of Easter truly bring to believers' hearts. Christ is
risen! The liturgy devotes to this immense mystery not only a day - it would be
too little for such joy-, but at least 50 days, that is, the entire Easter
Season, which ends with Pentecost.
Easter Sunday, moreover, is an absolutely special day which extends for the
whole of this week until next Sunday and forms the Octave of Easter.
In the atmosphere of Paschal joy, today's liturgy
takes us back to the sepulchre where, according to St Matthew's account,
impelled by their love for him, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary went to ‘visit’
Jesus' tomb. The Evangelist tells us that he comes to meet them and says: ‘Do
not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will
see me’ (Mt 28: 10).
The joy they felt at seeing their Lord was truly
indescribable and, filled with enthusiasm, they ran to tell the disciples.
The Risen One also repeats to us today, as to
these women who stayed by Jesus during the Passion, not to be afraid to become
messengers of the proclamation of his Resurrection. Those who encounter the Risen Jesus and entrust themselves docilely to
him have nothing to fear. This is the message that Christians are called to
spread to the very ends of the earth. The
Christian faith, as we know, is not born from the acceptance of a doctrine but
from an encounter with a Person, with Christ, dead and Risen.
In our daily lives, dear friends, there are so
many opportunities to proclaim this faith of ours to others simply and with
conviction, so that from our encounter their faith can grow.
And
it is more urgent than ever that the men and women of our age know and
encounter Jesus, and, also thanks to our example, allow themselves to be won
over by him.
The Gospel says nothing about the Mother of the
Lord, of Mary, but Christian tradition rightly likes to contemplate her while
with joy greater than anyone else's she embraces her divine Son, whom she had
held close when he was taken down from the Cross. Now, after the Resurrection,
the Mother of the Redeemer rejoices with Jesus' ‘friends’, who constitute the
new-born Church.
As
I renew my heartfelt Easter greetings to you all, I invoke her, the Regina
Caeli [Queen of Heaven], so that she may keep alive in each one of us faith in
the Resurrection and may make us messengers of the hope and love of Jesus
Christ.
The Exsultet, the Easter
Proclamation sung at the beginning of the Easter Vigil after the blessing of the Paschal Candle, contains these
remarkable words: O certe necessárium Adæ
peccatum,
quod Christi morte delétum est!
O felix culpa,
quæ talem ac tantum méruit habére Redemptórem!
'O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
'O happy fault
that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!'
Scottish poet Edwin Muir (1887-1959) captures something of the meaning of this in his poem One Foot in Eden, which is included in the poetry section of the Breviary used in Australia, England & Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
℟. Quia surrexit Dominus vere,
alleluia. Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui Domini
nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus, ut,
per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per
Christum, Dominum nostrum. ℟. Amen.
The musical setting is of the words in bold. During the Easter Season these are sung or recited at the end of Compline, the Church's Night Prayer. The whole text is recited instead of the Angelus during the Easter Season, traditionally at noon and at 6pm, and sometimes at 6am or early in the morning. Below are the words in Irish and in English. Déan gairdeas, a Bhanríon na bhflaitheas,
alleluia,
Óir an Té arbh fhiú thú é a iompar,
alleluia.
D’aiséirigh sé mar a dúirt, alleluia,
Guigh orainn chun Dé, alleluia.
R. Déan
áthas agus gairdeas, a Mhaighdean Mhuire, alleluia,
F. Óir
d’éirigh an Tiarna go fíor, alleluia. Guímis
A Dhia
a dheonaigh áthas a thabhairt don domhan trí aiséirí do Mhic, ár dTiarna Íosa
Críost, tabhair dúinn, impímid ort, trí idirghuí na Maighdine Muire, a
Mháthair, go bhfaighimis gairdeas na beatha síoraí. Tríd an gCríost céanna ár
dTiarna. Amen.
Queen of Heaven,
rejoice. Alleluia.
For He, whom thou wast worthy to bear. Alleluia.
Has risen as He said. Alleluia.
Pray for us to God. Alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary.
Alleluia.
R. Because the Lord is truly risen, Alleluia.
Let us pray
O God, Who by the Resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, hast
been pleased to give joy to the whole world, grant we beseech Thee, that
through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may attain
the joys of eternal life. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Sung by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, England At the Mass during the Day
Antiphona ad communionem Communion Antiphon 1 Cor 5:7-8
Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus, alleluia;
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, alleluia;
itaque epulemur in azymiz sinceritatis et veritatis, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
therefore let us keep the feast with the unleavened bread if purity and turth, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
An Easter Song from Beirut, Lebanon, 2011
Lebanon is a country that has
suffered greatly through wars. The Civil War lasted from 1975 to 1990 with
great loss of life. Another war occurred in 2006. But above is a joyful
proclamation in Arabic of the Resurrection of Jesus recorded at Easter 2011 in
a shopping mall in Beirut. The population of Lebanon is estimated to be 6.8
million. 54 per cent are Muslims and about 40 per cent Christians. More than
half of these are Maronite Catholics, in full communion with Rome. The rest are
Catholics of other rites and members of various Orthodox churches. The video
too may remind us that most of the Christians in the Middle East are Arabs and
descendants of the earliest Christians..
May
the joy of the Resurrection shown by these singers who had lived through wars
be a sign of hope for us at this Easter in the midst of the worldwide
Covid-19 pandemic that has made it impossible for most of us to celebrate our
greatest Christian feast in church.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
First ReadingIsaiah 52:13 – 53:12 (New Revised
Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)
See,
my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at him —so marred was his appearance,
beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals— so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths
because of him; for
that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard
they shall contemplate. Who
has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he
had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we
should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and
acquainted with infirmity; and
as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of
no account.
Surely
he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet
we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon
him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He
was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like
a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its
shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For
he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of
my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although
he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his
mouth.
Yet
it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When
you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and
shall prolong his days; through
him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
Out
of his anguish he shall see light; he
shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant,
shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong; because
he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the
transgressors; yet
he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors.
This is the talk givenby Pope Benedict XVI after the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good
Friday, 22 April 2011. I have highlighted
some parts of his message.
Dear Brothers and
Sisters, This evening, in faith,
we have accompanied Jesus as he takes the final steps of his earthly journey,
the most painful steps, the steps that lead to Calvary. We have heard the cries
of the crowd, the words of condemnation, the insults of the soldiers, the
lamentation of the Virgin Mary and of the women. Now we are immersed in the
silence of this night, in the silence of the cross, the silence of death. It is
a silence pregnant with the burden of pain borne by a man rejected, oppressed,
downtrodden, the burden of sin which mars his face, the burden of evil. Tonight we have re-lived, deep within our
hearts, the drama of Jesus, weighed down by pain, by evil, by human sin.
What remains now before
our eyes? It is a crucified man, a cross raised on Golgotha, a cross which
seems a sign of the final defeat of the One who brought light to those immersed
in darkness, the One who spoke of the power of forgiveness and of mercy, the
One who asked us to believe in God’s infinite love for each human person.
Despised and rejected by men, there stands before us ‘a man of suffering and
acquainted with infirmity, one from whom others hide their faces’ (Is 53:3).
But let us look more
closely at that man crucified between earth and heaven. Let us contemplate him more intently, and we will realize that the
cross is not the banner of the victory of death, sin and evil, but rather the
luminous sign of love, of God’s immense love, of something that we could never
have asked, imagined or expected: God bent down over us, he lowered himself,
even to the darkest corner of our lives, in order to stretch out his hand and
draw us to himself, to bring us all the way to himself. The cross speaks to
us of the supreme love of God and invites, today, to renew our faith in the
power of that love, and to believe that in every situation of our lives, our
history and our world, God is able to vanquish death, sin and evil, and to give
us new, risen life. In the Son of God’s
death on the cross, we find the seed of new hope for life, like the seed which
dies within the earth.
This night full of
silence, full of hope, echoes God’s call to us as found in the words of Saint
Augustine: ‘Have faith! You will come to me and you will taste the good things
of my table, even as I did not disdain to taste the evil things of your
table... I have promised you my own life. As a pledge of this, I have given you
my death, as if to say: Look! I am inviting you to share in my life. It is a
life where no one dies, a life which is truly blessed, which offers an
incorruptible food, the food which refreshes and never fails. The goal to which I invite you … is
friendship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, it is the eternal supper, it is
communion with me … It is a share in my own life’ (cf. Sermo 231,
5).
Let us gaze on the
crucified Jesus, and let us ask in prayer: Enlighten our hearts, Lord, that we
may follow you along the way of the cross. Put to death in us the ‘old man’
bound by selfishness, evil and sin. Make
us ‘new men’, men and women of holiness, transformed and enlivened by your love.
I'm preparing this on Wednesday of Holy Week. Just today The Catholic Thing website carries an article by Randall Smith, It's Part of the Deal, Isn't It?that provides food for reflection and prayer at this time, especially on Good Friday. He asks his students to reflect on the choices made by the Trappist monks in Tibhirine, Algeria, who were martyred in 1996, and by the villagers of Le Chambon, France, who protected many Jews during World War II.
Recently, students in our Honors class were
reading The Rule of St. Benedict. I
then had them watch the 2010 film Of Gods
and Men about the Trappist monastery in Tibhirine, Algeria, where nine
French monks lived and worked until 1996 when, during the Algerian Civil War,
seven of them were kidnapped by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria and later
found beheaded.
I won’t go into why I pair the movie with
the book, other than to say that the movie does a nice job of portraying the
Benedictine life, both its challenges and its understated beauties.Seeing it portrayed in this way helps make
the Rule seem less alien.Rather than asking, “What kind of bizarre
person would choose to live this way?” they see it as something more desirable,
something worth choosing.
One of the additional questions the movie
poses for us, however, is whether the monks made the right decision to stay in
Algeria when the violence in their area increased and mortal danger became more
threatening.The movie does a good job
of showing how conflicted the monks were.They were far from determined to embrace martyrdom and rush to their
deaths.At one meeting, a monk says
point-blank:“I didn’t become a monk to
die.”
